A report by the Head of Intelligence introduced the 2018/19 Quarter 1 (April – June 2018) performance against the Wirral Plan pledges under the remit of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Appendix 1 to the report provided an overview of the progress made in Quarter 1 and available data in relation to a range of outcome indicators and supporting measures.

Quarter One Wirral Plan Performance was summarised as follows:

·  The percentage of women booked to access professional maternity services on or before twelve and six week gestation was 89.5%. This was a significant improvement compared to the previous quarter (76%), which was above the regional average and was just below the 90% target

·  The Percentage of early years childcare providers rated 'good' or 'outstanding' by Ofsted was 93%. This was a 15% improvement since the start of the Wirral Plan and an increase of 2% since December 2017. Wirral was slightly below the regional and national figure of 94%.

·  The percentage of schools rated 'good' or 'outstanding' by Ofsted was at 86%, below the very aspirational target of 100%. This was a 2% improvement since the start of the Wirral Plan, but a 3% decrease on the previous quarter. Wirral's figure was the same as the national figure, and slightly below the regional figure of 88%.

·  The achievement gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers achieving the 'expected standard' at the end of key stage 2 for the academic year 2017/18 was provisionally 23.5%, 1.5% below the previous year’s figure.

·  There had been a slight improvement at the beginning of the year on the number of children looked after. It was anticipated that it would take a considerable amount of time to reduce the overall numbers due to the high proportion of children aged 10+.

·  Numbers of children in need overall currently remained in line with/slightly below statistical neighbours. Given the factors that led to children in need it was not anticipated that these numbers would decrease significantly over the next 12 months.

·  The number of children subject to child protection plans had increased compared to previous year and was now at a rate (per 10,000 of 0-17 population) of 52 compared to 39.3. There were concerns within the service that children were being managed as children in need or children looked after when they would have most benefited from a period of time subject to a child protection plan. The new number of children subject to a plan was comparative with statistical neighbours and, therefore, seen as more appropriate.

·  In Quarter 1, 23 more disabled people were in receipt of personal budgets; including 215 children (compared to 203 in the last Quarter). Being in receipt of personal budgets allowed people more choice and control over their lives and the support they received.

·  The percentage of children and Young People single assessments authorised with Domestic Violence (DV) related factors was 36.2%, a slight improvement when compared to the same period last year (35.5%). The number of MARAC cases including children and young people was 334 which showed a 6% decrease from the same period last year (355).

The Chair informed that he had invited the Lead Commissioner Community Safety & Resilience and the Assistant Director: Early Help & Prevention to the meeting to answer any questions Members may have on the performance during Quarter 1.

Members asked the Officers present a number of questions which were answered accordingly. Matters highlighted as requiring more clarification included the following:

·  What needed to be done to close the achievement gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers achieving the ‘expected standard’ in English, reading, English writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2?

  The tide was turning on the achievement gap.  It was narrowing and   Officers were very   conscious that this started at 4-5 years old and got   wider and wider.  There was a big focus on this.  Work was continuing on the progress tracker to ensure that as many providers as possible were using it to identify those children who needed additional support to improve their school readiness.

·  The percentage of children aged 4-5 classified as over-weight or obese seemed to be getting worse.  Was this connected to a lack of funding and Slimming World not being available at all locations?  It was noted that this was not a local issue but a national trend caused by a bad diet, a lack of activity and a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Schools were being encouraged to combine physical activity with fun to counteract this.

·  The percentage of referrals to Children’s Social Care that were within 12 months of one or more previous referrals. There had been a number of significant changes around the front door processes in the last 3 to 6 months.  Data suggested that this in itself had not led to the increase in re-referrals.  Further work was underway to look at the reasons for the change.  The current change made current performance slightly above statistical neighbours.  Second referrals were being reviewed to see whether this was because previous intervention did not address the problem.  It was noted that there were also some system issues that were known about with referrals.  Re-referrals were above the national average.

·  There was a significant increase in woman accessing maternity services.  What had led to this?

Women were now able to book appointments at Children’s Centres. There had also been a change to the pathway. Women were encouraged to book their scans as soon as possible. The whole package was available via the Children’s Centres.

·  There had been a total of 720 domestic abuse cases that had been dealt with at MARAC in the 12 months prior to June 2018. This equated to 52.5 cases per 10,000 female population. There had been an increased volume of referrals into FSU, this was most notable in the last week of June and this had impacted upon MARAC figure and was likely to result in excess of 50 cases heard at MARAC in the following week. There was no obvious trigger for the increase in referrals but domestic abuse was predicted to increase during the World Cup however this is not evident as a trigger within referrals.

There were concerns that not all domestic abuse incidents were reported.  Accurate figures were important but there was only so much that the Council could do to get people to step forward. How the Council was trying to combat under reporting and what made a good Domestic Abuse Service was outlined.

One success was that the Council has a zero tolerance to domestic violence was one of the Wirral Plan’s 20 Pledges.  This gave victims the confidence to report incidents of domestic abuse in confidence and expect an appropriate level of service. There was a well operated and integrated front door.  There was a partnership where the partners met to discuss and measure risks.  Statutory and voluntary services were embedded. Trend analysis had been removed and only the figures were reported. The Council carried out high risk assessments and victim’s needs were suitably addressed.  There were staffing issues which were outlined and consequently the service had been flagged as a red risk.

The staff were currently 50% down on the full establishment but were coping and extra resources were being put in place to try to support them.  Members raised concerns about this serious drop in staffing levels.  They were informed that it had been flagged as a red risk with the Leader of the Council and Officers were maintaining regular daily contact with the staff concerned.  It was noted that one to one contact with victims did take up a lot of time and to provide assistance a Peer’s Mentoring Programme had been launched through Tomorrow’s Woman.

A number of initiatives were running around the concept of building a Safer Wirral Hub. The Council was working with volunteers and PCSOs on lower and medium risks. A lot of victims turned up at Hospital Accident and Emergency (A and E) Departments with injuries. The Council had people working in A and E to help these victims.

It had been identified that there were spikes of domestic abuse and consequently the Council ran campaigns e.g. Christmas, New Year and when the Football World Cup was on. It was noted that the Council was working with Tranmere Rovers and some of their supporters who showed aggression, providing holding pens so that they did not go straight home after the match.

There was a whole host of issues around the perpetrators and there was a £10m Programme being run with the Police and Probation Service to manage high risk individuals out on license etc.  A whole range of activities were being provided.  The Council was also working with Tomorrow’s Woman in Birkenhead designing a programme for the victims of domestic abuse.

·  Repeat incident of domestic abuse (Wirral MARAC cases) were lower than the same period last year.  However, it was expected that this would increase in the coming months due to a national change in repeat criteria. This was a worry.  The Police were struggling to deal with the levels of crime.  This had been discussed in workshops and it was thought that this could double the incident rate.  The threshold and measurement of how the incidents were being assessed was under scrutiny.

·  There was support for men who were the victims of domestic abuse.  There were a number of organisations that sign posted men. Males made up just 1% of domestic abuse victims. There were male victim support packages available.  This was a challenge and lent itself to an initiative that could be run across the Liverpool City Region.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report be noted.